BN MPs chide Mahathir for criticising budget in advance

KUALA LUMPUR – Oct 20, 2016: Two Barisan Nasional parliamentarians have condemned former prime minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad for ridiculing next year’s national budget which will only be tabled tomorrow.

In his latest blog post Mahathir described the budget as meaningless and denounced it as being pointless since the government now is short of money.

“No doubt huge sums of money will be allocated to the ministries and agencies. Parliament will surely pass the budget because it is the budget presented by the ruling party which has the majority in Parliament.

“But the people know that the government has not got the money to meet the budget. They know that ministries in the last two years have been told that the money is not available and therefore they must spend less than what is budgeted for,” wrote with the usual tinge of sarcasm.

BN parliamentarians who talked to The Mole at the Dewan Rakyat today openly expressed their displeasure.

Datuk Irmohizam Ibrahim of Kuala Selangor said Mahathir was making baseless claims which could tarnish the country’s image.

“He has made reckless remarks. The country is quite affected by the currently unsound global economic trend. Even during his premiership the faced a severe economic downturn in 1997.

“Thus, how could he come up with such a statement, without considering the current state of the world economy?

“These remarks show the kind of person he really is, not to mention that his ill intended comments will only make the people grow tired (of him),” commented Irmohizam.

Tan Sri Noh Omar of Tanjong Karang and a minister described Mahathir’s remarks as causing further confusion among the people.

“The budget has yet to be presented. Why should he comment? He should wait until it has been tabled. Even some ministers are clueless on the details.

“How is it possible for him to know that the government cannot meet the fiscal plan? Is he the prime minister?” Noh quipped.